CONCERNING THE DATA

The photographs and slides in the Brault and Hayward Research Collections in the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University exist as visual documents of the works. Together with the text documents in the Hayward Collection they are primary research materials for the study of the history of Canadian sculpture.

Mr. Brault made an attempt to obtain identification and information about the sculpture he photographed from the owners and makers of the works. The artists or their close relatives were in many cases the source of Hayward's slide identifications. The database on this website contains much of this descriptive data in the exact form that it was received from Mr. Brault and Mr. Hayward, and the user is cautioned that, as Hayward observed, interviewing an artist serves as a great source of information "but it is not always accurate." (Lawrence Hayward)

The visual information on the slides and photos has not been significantly altered during the digitization process either. For example, if a slide of a sculpture was shot in a child's bedroom the Disney wallpaper has not been cropped out of the background.

In other words, raw data is being presented in the database of this website in contrast to the more common method of entering catalogued information into databases. In most instances Library or Slide Collection databases contain information that has been checked and "cleaned up."

Processing raw data is customary and necessary to provide users with transparent, fast and effective methods of accessing information. Professional library and information scientists are trained to use specialized tools such as Library of Congress Authority files and the Art and Architecture Thesaurus to describe library and visual resources material. They catalogue and classify materials with standardized and controlled codes and terms. It makes looking something up easier for you.

For example, if a book has been translated into five languages you can find it by searching for the title in any one of the them. If the Slide Library received five slides labelled Louis-Philippe Hébert and four slides labelled Philippe Hébert you'll find all nine filed together since they're by the same artist. You don't have to know how many Carlis or Levasseurs there were because the librarian has done the research and all you have to do is browse through the catalogue. Just think how much easier it is for you to differentiate the Apple of Apelles from edible apples and Apple computers in a library catalogue compared with doing a simple search on the Web.

In the case of slides there are few resources available to allow untrained students to fully and properly catalogue images in a short period of time. In the case of Canadian sculpture there are even fewer ways to obtain such basic information as the correct spelling of artists' names or standard titles for monuments and exhibited works. There is a need for research in this area but researchers need material. By putting a sample of the contents of the Hayward and Brault Collections online, even before it has been verified, we are providing access to material that was almost completely inaccessible before. Despite the possible challenge to users viewing data in the condition in which it was received into the collection, this web site offers a rare opportunity to view in one place a significant portion of an artist's oeuvre unavailable otherwise. We hope this will encourage interest in traditional sculpture in Canada and that this synergistic combination of data and the capacity of the Internet to disseminate information will enrich knowledge, assist researchers in the study of the artists and aid in compiling information on their works.

Linda Bien
October 1998
Montreal

A qui le droit…
Jean Bélisle

Introductory Statement
François Brault

Hayward Collection
Linda Bien